Academic advising is, according to the National Academic Advising Association, "a series of intentional interactions with a curriculum, a pedagogy, and a set of student learning outcomes. Academic advising synthesizes and contextualizes students' educational experiences within the frameworks of their aspirations, abilities and lives to extend learning beyond campus boundaries and timeframes."
History
Academic advising traces its beginnings to the earliest of American colleges including Harvard University. The book Academic Advising: A Comprehensive Handbook, sponsored by the National Academic Advising Association, contains chapters on the historical foundations, theory, current practices, ethics, and legal issues of academic advising. According to Kramer, the history of faculty as academic advisors can be traced back to 1841 at Kenyon College. At that time, the college required students to choose a faculty member to be their advisor. The faculty member would then help the student determine what courses they needed to take in order to graduate.
Standards
Of significance to the profession of academic advising are the Standards and Guidelines for Academic Advising that have been developed by the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education and endorsed by the National Academic Advising Association. These Standards and Guidelines are available at the . The Standards and their accompanying Guidelines cover thirteen areas from Mission to Assessment. The current Standards and Guidelines were last updated in 2005.
Models
A variety of approaches exist to academic advising, each of which is informed by the goals of the advisor-student interaction. Three principle models of advising include developmental advising, prescriptive advising, and intrusive advising.
Developmental Advising
Developmental advising was first introduced by Crookson in 1972. This approach is focused on helping students explore and define academic, career and life goals and pathways, and develop problem-solving and decision-making skills through collaborative and process-oriented advising. Fostering a relationship between the advisor and student is critical to this model, which is based primarily on adult development theory and student development theory. Although many studies have shown that students generally prefer this approach it can require a greater commitment of time and resources compared to other advising models.
Prescriptive Advising
The prescriptive or traditional advising model is focused primarily on providing students with information directly related to their academic program and progress, such as academic policies, major/program requirements and course selection. Prescriptive advising is normally initiated by the student as the goal of this approach is to address immediate questions to facilitate the student’s progress through their academic program, rather than play a role in helping the student form long-term goals beyond their academic pursuits. This type of advising is sometimes equated to a doctor-patient relationship model.
Intrusive Advising
A model for intrusive advising was first introduced by Glennon in 1975. A defining feature of this approach is that contact is initiated by the advisor rather than the student. Generally, contact with students is initiated at critical periods throughout a student’s academic career, such as during a student’s first year of study, while taking developmental or remedial courses, before they must declare a major, or as they approach graduation. Additionally, particular cohorts of students may be targeted such as academically at-risk students, or high-achieving students. In practice intrusive advising has been shown to have a positive impact on developmental/remedial undergraduate mathematics course pass rates, as well as student retention and degree attainment rates, and research indicates that students prefer this approach to advising over strictly prescriptive advising. However, it is important to note that some students may find this approach invasive.
Misc Advising
Advising has been around for sometime, but there are many different settings of advising. The differences can include from high school to undergraduate degrees to graduate degrees. In research it is shown that there are two specific college advising that have been helpful to students asking for advice. Collaborative and individualistic are those two. Individualistic is similar to intrusive and is not necessary to repeat information. Collaborative advising is shown to be more helpful than individualistic advising and has been shown to help due to the group participation. Students learn more from other students co-advising them. They learn more when details become more realistic and generalizable. Collaborative advising is also where group advisors and group advisees work together to come up with multiple solutions to give the students' options.
Effectiveness
Academic advising is shown to be more successful when advisors hold face-to-face appointments with their advisees. Particularly with topics like future classes, and careers. Face-to-face interactions make advising more meaningful for the students. Additionally, students place more importance on the supportive and caring nature of their relationship with their advisor than on the particular approach to advising. Participation in academic advising has been shown to increase student satisfaction and mitigate students’ feelings of isolation or disconnection from the institution as a whole, both of which according to Tinto are linked to with increased university student retention and graduation rates, and reduced attrition and withdrawal rates. This effect has been documented for both traditional ‘on-campus’ institution and institutions which offer courses and/or entire programs through online/virtual formats.
